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Story:Star Trek: Conflict/Face of the Future
The ''Enterprise''-C and the ''Admonitor'' must help [[Enterprise (NX-01)|a pre-Federation Enterprise]] return to its own time, in the wake of an attack by a hostile race. Summary Chapter One Edward Shield is still captaining the . The crew of that ship does not miss their old captain, since Young was always, as they said, a "man-hating tyrannical expletive". They have returned to the Milky Way Galaxy. Shield is overseeing the ship when the S'srelli warp engine shuts down. The crew fears for their lives, but they are relieved when they see that Shield does not use capital punishment for insubordination or for accidents. While he attempts to help the Engineering crew repair the warp engine (even though its sophisticated technology far surpassed human comprehension), a homing beacon is activated inside the warp core. They are able to shut it down, but not until the beacon has already sent out a sub-space message attached to a tachyon beam. Chapter Two Shield informs Lianna Young on the ''Enterprise''-C about the news. She is furious, and tells them to prepare for incoming enemies. Just as both ships go to yellow alert, a ship appears out of nowhere. It is an older, pre-Federation vessel: the . An astrochronomic sensor sweep shows that the year is still 2344, and therefore it is Enterprise that has come into the future. Both Shield and Young agree that they are not to make too much contact with the past, since they might alter the space-time continuum by doing so: however, they also agree that leaving the ship as it is will be MORE damaging to the continuum than simple interaction, and so the two captains decide that they alone will make contact. A transmission from Enterprise is received on the . Captain Jonathan Archer asks them to identify themselves. Shield tells Archer that it is quite a disturbing topic, one that they would have to discuss person-to-person: he asks that he and Captain Young board a shuttle and meet on his ship. Archer agrees, and the shuttle-pod is launched shortly thereafter. When the two captains emerge from the shuttle-pod, they ask Captain Archer to speak with his Senior Officer crew privately. He agrees, and they later convene in his ready-room. Shield reveals to Archer that their ship, the Enterprise, has come almost two hundred years into the future. T'Pol states that they should attempt to return to the 22nd century, since their presence in the 24th century is damaging to both the past and the future. Shield agrees, and tells Archer not to mention them to anyone in the 22nd century due to what affects knowledge of the future might have on their occurrence. He then agrees to lend whatever aid he can to get Archer and his crew back to their time, but makes it clear that he cannot give them 24th century technology since it would disrupt the natural flow of time. After the meeting, Young and Shield return to their shuttle-pod. While they walk, Shield reveals his admiration for Jonathan Archer. He also states that he has his memoirs among his collection of hard-back tomes in his personal library in his cabin onboard the . Young says that, regardless of his contributions to the formation of the United Federation of Planets, she still views Archer as a chauvinist pig; Shield simply brushes this off without offense, since she views all men as such. As soon as they reach Enterprise s docking bay, the ship goes on red alert. Shield and Young rush up to the Bridge where they ask Archer what the situation is: Archer states that they can't return to their ship just yet as they have detected hostile enemy ships. Shield asks how he knows they are hostile, and Archer replies that he's met them in battle before. Chapter Three Contrary to Shield's first guess, the hostile aliens are not Klingons, but S'srelli, a race of serpentine non-humanoids who made first contact with humans in Archer's time. He states that they took an instant disliking to humans and, despite all of his attempts to reason with them, that they wanted to destroy Earth as much as the Xindi did. Shield calls over to the to get readings on the S'srelli vessels: Nox reports that they are of 24th century origin. This puts Shield at a stand-still. If S'srelli still exist in the 24th century, then they must be superiorly powerful. The three ships take their stand against the S'srelli Hunter-Seeker ship. It is a fifty-person crew (S'srelli ships not designed for having large crew) meant for hit-and-run missions. The ship arms its weapons, but does not answer any of their hails. The three Earth vessels take a defensive stance, waiting for the S'srelli to strike first. They do, and their first strike delivers heavy damage to both Enterprise''s, but only minimal damage to the [[USS Admonitor|''Admonitor]]. Young states that this is because of the S'srelli technology which was built into it, but reveals this only to Shield. Then he tells her about the transmission that the S'srelli warp drive sent while he was in command. It must have been a distress beacon that summoned the Hunter-Seeker to their coordinates. Lianna Young refuses to destroy or eject their S'srelli technology from the ''Admonitor'' and she threatens Shield from doing it either. Jonathan Archer tells her that she has to do it, or they doom their own futures by letting them all be destroyed by the S'srelli. Young says, very arrogantly, that she doesn't take orders from maggots, and that to discard the S'srelli technology would rob their Insurrection of its tactical advantage. Chapter Four Having been openly attacked, Shield suggests that they use the S'srelli technology against its owners. The opens fire on the Hunter-Seeker. The S'srelli ship is extremely mobile and evades nine of their ten attempts to fire at it. Young states that its because 24th century humans are so brain-washed into believing that war is a thing of the past that they have no combat training. Young tells Shield to go over to the ''Admonitor'' and activate the Manual Override Control and personally use the ship to destroy the S'srelli Hunter-Seeker. But a report from Nox suddenly states that the Override Control has been temporarily shut down due to a quantum torpedo from the Hunter-Seeker. Young and Shield realize that they don't have enough crewmen skilled in combat to effectively engage the S'srelli long enough to send Enterprise back to its own time. Archer then suggests sending some of his crew onto the ''Admonitor'' to use it to destroy the S'srelli, since they have had combat experience and have personally engaged the S'srelli before. Shield agrees. Archer sends Tucker, Reed, Mayweather and three MACOs over to the while he, T'Pol and Hoshi Sato command Enterprise. Shield returns to the Admonitor to direct the Enterprise crew while Young stays on Enterprise to temporarily take over the crew's missing posts. It takes several minutes for the 22nd century crew to adjust to the 24th century technology (Tucker stating that he'd have much better luck understanding a steam-boat than the ''Admonitor''), and even more for them to adjust to the new atmosphere: most especially with a Romulan serving on the Admonitor bridge and the new S'srelli technology. However, they are successful with getting the Admonitor battle-ready. The Hunter-Seeker, all this time having cloaked in order to repair itself, recloaks and re-engages. The combat-experienced crew is more than a match for the S'srelli Hunter-Seeker. Captain Archer, however, refuses to let his crew destroy the S'srelli vessel, in order to show them the extent of human compassion. The Hunter-Seeker goes to warp. A great celebration among all three crews ensue. Shield stating that he has fulfilled one of his life-long dreams: to fight in battle alongside the heroes of the first Enterprise. Chapter Five The festivities end with T'Pol reminding them that they are still stuck in the 24th century. Shield suggests using the "slingshot effect". T'Pol and Young both state that this could be even more damaging, since the margin for error is so slight that any error would destroy Enterprise and that the amount of power needed for such a feat might destroy the ship as well. Shield states that they could either take the risk, or spend the next several centuries waiting for the next wormhole or temporal distortion to take them who knows when in time. Archer is willing to take the risks, and calls his crew back to the Enterprise to prepare for the execution of the "slingshot effect". The collective crews of the ''Admonitor'' and the ''Enterprise''-C hold their breath as the moves toward the nearest star to enact the dangerous maneuver. When Nox asks if they know it will work, Shield replies that if the Enterprise doesn't return safely, their entire futures will be irrevocably changed and most likely not for the best. Just then, the ship enacts the maneuver and disappears. When nothing changes, the crew take a collective sigh of relief. arrived safely in the 22nd century. Category:Star Trek: Conflict Episodes